Transcript Implementing

Workplace Innovation
and the ICD
Roy Green
‘Meeting the Challenge of Change –
Irish Labour Market Issues in a Global Economy’
LRC Symposium, November 11 2004
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What is the ICD?
• EU directive will provide new information
and consultation rights in undertakings
(50+) or establishments (20+)
• Consultation will be with employee/union
representatives – covering the economic
situation, employment issues, work
organisation changes etc
• Deadline for transposing into legislation,
with sanctions, is March 2005
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Why here, why now?
• In the past, a strong moral case has been
proposed for involving employees in
decisions that affect them, addressing the
‘democratic deficit’ at the workplace
• Now this moral case has been joined, if
not superseded, by the economic, social
and technological imperatives of (1) the
EU single market and (2) the knowledgebased economy
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Lisbon update
• Europe’s aim was to be the world’s most
competitive and dynamic knowledgebased economy by 2010
• However, implementation required major
structural reforms across the EU combined
with ‘greater social cohesion’
• The Lisbon strategy has been reviewed
and reinvigorated by the Wim Kok report
and last week’s European Council
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Productivity gap
• The Kok report, drawing on EU Economy
2004 analysis, highlights concern about
the decline in EU labour productivity
growth from the mid-1990s, compared with
increases in the US
• These reports criticise Europe’s failure to
meet the Lisbon targets, particularly those
relating to the development of ‘national
innovation capacity’ and key factors in
competitiveness
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“The problem is… that the Lisbon strategy
has become too broad to be understood
as an interconnected narrative. Lisbon is
about everything and thus about nothing.
Everybody is responsible and thus no one.
The end result of the strategy has
sometimes been lost. An ambitious and
broad reform agenda needs a clear
narrative…”
(High Level Group, Facing the Challenge, 2004)
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Irish narrative?
• Ireland’s narrative is still evolving but is
beginning to focus more clearly on the need
to build national innovation capacity – and
to create higher skill jobs
• While Ireland’s exports now embody the
highest R&D intensity of any OECD country,
the technology for the most part originated
not here but in the home base of inward
investors
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Technology Balance of
Payments (% of GDP)
1
0
-1
-2
-3
-4
-5
-6
-7
-8
-9
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Ireland
Korea
Germany
Australia
Finland
Japan
US
Denmark
Switzer
OECD TBP Database, 2003.
New enterprise model
“Whereas in the past, products
manufactured in Ireland were designed
elsewhere, in the future, more of the
ideas, the designs and the technology
must originate here. Companies in Ireland
will have to innovate and gain leadership
positions in their target markets”
(Enterprise Strategy Group, Ahead of the Curve, 2005)
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This emerging innovation narrative is not
just about technology but also institutional
support and, crucially, effective delivery at
the organisational level.
Sources of innovation
Technological
Institutional
Organisational
NCPP Forum on the Workplace of the Future, 2004
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Organisational innovation
“Few countries have developed a
coordinated and focused policy for
organisational innovation: this is an area
where Ireland, with its positive
experience of social partnership, can
gain early mover advantage”
(Enterprise Strategy Group, Ahead of the Curve, 2004)
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Research evidence
• International evidence on ‘high performance
work systems’ and their characteristics
(Osterman, Ichniowski, Weinstein & Kochan)
• Link between ‘bundles’ of high performance
work practices and economic performance
(Macduffie, Huselid, Ichniowski)
• Key role in high performance work systems of
‘employee voice’ (Applebaum, Boxall & Purcell,
Dundon, Marchington)
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‘Intensity of collaboration’
“the role and impact of consultative
schemes in improving workplace
performance was found to be directly
related to the ‘intensity’ of
collaboration between management
and workforce”
(Alexander & Green, ‘Workplace productivity and joint consultation’, 1992)
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Employees consulted prior to
decisions affecting their work (%)
50
ESRI survey of 5,198 employees
40
30
27
24
20
21
15
10
13
0
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Almost always
Often
Sometimes
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Rarely
Almost Never
Percentage of Private Sector Employees 'Hardly Ever' Receiving
Information from Management in 6 Areas of Work
100
90
80
70
60
50
58
40
30
20
41
37
52
42
40
10
0
Competition
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Intro new
prod/serv
Intro new
tech .
Re-org
company
Change work Sales/Profits
pract
Percentage of Public Sector Employees 'Hardly Ever' Receiving
Information from Management in 5 Areas of Work
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
44
36
20
10
26
29
Improve
Services
Intro new tech
33
0
Budget
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Reorganise
Service
Change work
practices
‘Readiness’ for ICD
• CISC case study analysis of 15 public and
private sector organisations in 2002/03,
with union and non-union workforces
• Analysis based on interviews with senior
management, employee representatives
and employee focus groups
• Steering Group for research comprising
DETE, LRC, NCPP and Forfás
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Representation gap
• Mix of ‘direct’ and ‘indirect’ mechanisms
for employee participation (including JCC,
EWC, collective bargaining, upward
problem-solving, communications)
• Balance towards ‘shallow’ level of
participation, based on trust, informality
and employer initiative
• The full report may be accessed at
www.nuigalway.ie/cisc
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People create knowledge
“Knowledge creation and diffusion are
at the core of economic activity.
Knowledge is embodied in people, and
it is the quality of the human resources
that will determine the success or
otherwise of firms and economies in the
years ahead.”
(Enterprise Strategy Group, Ahead of the Curve, 2004)
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Way forward
• For ICD legislation to provide an effective
catalyst for change, its rationale as part of
the ‘innovation narrative’ must be robust,
well-communicated and understood
• This will not be achieved by a ‘minimalist’
interpretation of the ICD directive – with a 3
year lead time, Ireland’s social partnership
provides a unique opportunity for workplace
transformation
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Implementation strategy
• Successful implementation of the ICD at
the organisational level will require active
policy support, on the model of Finland’s
Workplace Development Programme
• It will also require a national training
programme, which would encompass
initiatives such as the UK’s workplace
learning representatives
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